The Interview with Loknath Yashwant

In a candid conversation with a very reputed and well known poet, awarded with Damani Literature Award, Sanjivani Khoje Award and the likes, Loknath Yashwant, he spills out his struggles, love and sincerity for his Art.

Tell us something about your childhood.

I remember my father being in to the police department; my childhood was mostly spent in moving from one place to another. I changed 8 schools till 10th standard and what affected me most was that I couldn’t retain my friends in the process. This made me very sensitive then I made friends with myself. That’s when I learnt, I can write to express myself. It is a wonderful feeling to do what you like.

What led you to write poetry?

I used to feel I should try my hand in every Art field because just being a matriculate you don’t have any other choice either. But I realized you need money to do something like that. And I didn’t have money then I don’t have money now. And the only field, which did not require money, only your thoughts and a pen, was writing. I tried writing stories and that did not interest me. The concept of expressing a lot with few words is what I preferred. I found a way to channelize my emotions, expression through poetry.

You wanted a job but your interest was in something else. Why?

I had always aspired to become a clerk. Because you get a lot of free time to write poetry (laughs). I still have poetry running in my head all the time. Any Art has to be 24×7 in your head for it to be genuine. So I took up a job in MSEB, Manoj Sapre Sir who is also a cartoonist helped me. I was selected and appointed too through the Artist Quota. I was fortunate because after that jobs through artist quota were closed.

How did your family take your liking towards poetry?

My father had retired after my metric. So we shifted to Chandrapur & for 8 years I had no work. A few petty jobs here and there, which didn’t earn me good. But still my parents never complained rather my father was fond of my writings. He used to carry all the poems I wrote in his shirt’s right pocket and would share to publishers and people he thought who could help me. My father was my fan and vice versa.

Can you share any recent achievements out of the long list of them?

There are many such moments but recently in January I got a call from the legend I am supposedly the biggest fan and he wanted me to translate all his ghazals and poems in Marathi for his fans in Maharashtra. It was a fan moment indeed. I was speechless for the first time in life. He was none other than Padma Shri Nida Fazli Saab. And the book’s name is ‘Manus Bezaar Ithehi Aani Ithehi’. Also, I was fortunate enough that two movies are made, inspired by my poems, ‘Bail’ a film by Girish Mohite and ‘Himmat’ a film by Guruprasad Jadhav & Siddhesh Sawant.